Sunday, September 10, 2006

Bienvenidos Opera a San Antonio!

What a delightful surprise I had this morning when I was searching for a review of La Diva Renee'sLa Traviata with the LA Opera last night. I discovered a news article about the newly re-christened San Antonio Opera's debut production of La Traviata. Although it appears to have received mixed reviews, it is quite exciting to learn that this genre of live performance in in San Antonio. When I lived in Texas, I had not yet discovered live opera, although I knew of its existence with the Houston Grand Opera and the Austin Lyric Opera. My Austin friend Beth is a subscriber and was the first to accompany to the Metropolitan Opera to see Rigoletto (Thank you Beth!). Wouldn't it figure that I have to live in Manhattan to find out that San Antonio has had an opera for ten years? But of course, I never do anything the easy way.

And it's exciting to learn that although the San Antonio Opera is only performing three productions this season, Frederica von Stade will grace them with her mezzo sorprano presence in June. I'm going to see my friend Flicka with Dame Kiri te Kanawa at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris on October 21st....perhaps I should go home to Texas to see Flicka in June! Opera and margaritas can't be a bad combination.